During the week we read a variety of books and songs.  

The children also explored painting on a different easel.  The benefits of working on an easel are: 

  • Fine motor: Moving the painting tool from the paint container to the easel surface requires focus and control.  
  • Large motor: Because of the angle of the arm, using the easel works the shoulder and entire arm. The bigger the surface, the more exercise this area of the body gets.
  • Cognitive skills: There is a lot to figure out while using an easel, such as how the paint will get on the paper, how the different colors will mix, and how to handle the drips that occur.

Gradually the children are learning to recognize and identify the colors in a fun and interactive way.  Today we are exploring the color yellow.  To celebrate the color, some of the children were wearing a yellow blouse, socks or both!  Before the teacher displays a Ziploc bag with the items of the selected color, she asks the children during circle time to choose an item that's yellow. 

The children are going to be taking turns feeding the fish!

Some of the highlights of the week:

  • The children made green Play dough
  • Painting at the wooden easel
  • Painting on Foil Paper
  • Painting with Q-tips-The children painted in pairs with Q-tips on a square canvas.  Some of the benefits of children working in pairs are:

    • Give learners more speaking time

    • Allows them to incorporate their techniques and ideas as they begin to use their words

    • Gives them a sense of achievement when reaching a team goal

    • Allows us as teachers to monitor, move around the class and listen to the language they are producing and observe as they work together.  Each pair demonstrated their different techniques when maneuvering the Q-tip, shared and respected their space.

The Spanish Specialist comes every Tuesday, and she manages to mesmerize the children with her songs and activities.  The children seem to enjoy listening and participating singing the songs in Spanish and listening to a short story about a turkey.  Today several of our students were articulating many words in Spanish as they sang.  It was great to see how they are adapting and absorbing another language.